


I Can't Teach you to Swim, but I'll Keep you from Drowning

by Aegistic



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Drowning, F/M, M/M, Multi, Violence, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 06:43:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8276447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aegistic/pseuds/Aegistic
Summary: Poe meets Rey. Kylo steals Rey. Rey is sick of this shit. Finn is sicker of this shit.





	

**Author's Note:**

> If drowning, underwater almost drowning, and someone being held underwater is a trigger or a squick for you, you will not like this first chapter, please do not force yourself to read it.

Growing up in the harsh environment of Jakku meant that Rey had very little experience with anything more than a strong wind or extreme temperatures. She'd seen green and smelled the rich earth and fresh air at Maz's cantina before the First Order had shown up. She felt snow catch in her eyelashes and melt for the first time on Stark-Killer base. Now she was stretched out on the grassy green knoll on the big island in Luke's archipelago, Ahch-To,; soaking up the sun and enjoying the gentle breeze that toyed with the loose strands of her hair. Temperate weather was her favorite, though sometimes she loved the cold days where it rained all day and she and Luke and Chewbacca took shelter on the Falcon and watched the map of stars that R2-D2 projected into the room. She also loved the days where it was so hot that the air felt heavy and the little flowers wilted under the intense glare of the sun. Rey loved weather and would ask Luke about it when she remembered, but he often would tell her little more than "I grew up in the desert too, I'm still trying to remember which clouds are which. Now be quiet and meditate."

Rey rolled to her side and plucked a small cluster of tiny white flowers that grew in bunches close to the ground and tucked it into her hair. A ship roared overhead, jolting her out of her quiet reverie. It was an Y-wing, she knew that by the sound of the engine and the wings shifting to adjust for lift. It passed overhead two more times before dipping out of sight on the far side of the island where the Falcon was kept. Rey leapt to her feet, grabbed her staff, and took off down the hill to catch the winding steps that led down to the shore-line. The small ship had been landed neatly next to the Millennium Falcon and Chewie and R2 were already scoping out the craft. Luke came up behind Rey, she didn't see him, but could feel him. His presence was like a heavy security blanket sometimes. 

BB-8 dropped out from the bottom of the Y-wing and clumsily rolled over the jagged rocks to R2, who was already beeping up a storm. The droids bounced off each other and Rey ran the rest of the way, down the uneven grey steps to the ships to greet her little round friend. The cockpit on the Y-wing popped open with a pneumatic 'whoosh' and a man in an orange flightsuit jumped out. He looked exactly like the little doll Rey had back on Jakku; the white vest, the helmet with the symbol of the rebels on it, even his smile seemed right. He took his helmet off and a mop of black hair popped out all tousled and falling perfectly against his olive skin. He flashed her his charming smile and extended a hand.

"Poe Dameron. Not Dead." BB-8 made a noise that sounded like a laugh and Rey took his hand hesitantly.  
"You're BB-8's master." She said, fitting puzzle pieces that had been cast aside months ago together in her head.  
"Friend. Master just feels like the wrong thing to say." Poe corrected gently. There was a muffled noise of discontent from the gunner seat on the Y-wing as the second passenger unloaded from the small ship.  
"Did we find 'em Poe?" It was Finn's voice. Rey lit up like a sunrise and bounded over to Finn, who was barely on solid ground. She knocked him over, arms twining themselves around his shoulders and chest, finding purchase where they could, like she was trying to absorb him after being apart.  
"Yeah, we found 'em." Poe responded with a laugh. He turned his attentions to the man in the brown robes who was barely holding back a smile at Rey's enthusiastic greeting for her friend. "You must be Master Skywalker," Poe said, charm leaking out of him with every word. Luke nodded in the sage way that was appropriate for a Jedi.  
"Leia sent you."   
"Yessir. She did send us. Along with a year's worth of rations and clean clothes."   
"And another pupil." Luke nodded towards Finn, who had managed to sit up with Rey wrapped around his neck and was currently plucking the flowers from her hair.  
"Is that right?" Poe asked. He turned slightly and watched Rey snatch the flowers from Finn and tuck them back into her hair. Luke made a non-committal grunting noise and turned to go back up the steps to the ruins he called home.  
"When they're done cuddling, tell them I'll be waiting up there." He pointed ahead of himself and took the stone steps faster than Poe thought an old man was even capable of.

*****  
Rey wasn't much of a squealer, she'd rarely had anything to be enthusiastically excited about growing up as a scavenger on Jakku; as such when she did squeal, it was rather surprising for everyone involved.  
The squeal in question came about with Luke announcing that Finn was staying on to train as a Jedi with them. Poe added on that he was going to stay for a while too, to "take a break from the hullabaloo of the rebel base". Finn's whooping was an equally enthusiastic outburst.  
*****

"I don't know." Rey said, eyeing Poe standing in water that came up to his shoulders. "I don't like not touching the bottom."  
"That's because you don't know how to swim. You just need a teacher." Poe called back as Finn waded closer to him.  
Rey shuddered as she was transported back into the snowy forest of Star Killer base and Kylo Ren nearly overpowering her. She was sitting in five inches of water, warm waves gently lapping at her as friendly temperate winds blew them across the hot spring. Finn and Poe had stripped down to nothing and were casually paddling around in the deeper, bluer water. Rey still had on a light layer of silken under clothes that stuck to her small frame greedily. She watched Poe shove Finn under the water, only to have Finn reemerge in a tidal wave of naked fury and return the favor. 

"C'mon, Rey!" Finn shouted, kicking his legs manically at the water to move himself away from Poe and closer to his shore bound friend. "It's fun."  
Poe popped up behind Finn, but instead of dragging him under water, he glided past him with a few pulls of his powerful arms. He rolled in with the waves and sat next to Rey, ignoring the wet silk clinging to her legs and the dampness in her hair from sitting in the wind and steam. "What are you afraid of?"  
"On Jakku, there're places where water mixed with sand, it moves like it's alive and can swallow a person whole before they've had the chance to blink. Drowning seems awful and terrifying and if you can drown so easily in sand it has be a thousand times easier to drown in water." Rey responded, staring out at Finn who was floating on his back, making minor corrections here and there to keep himself mostly centered in the spring. Steam rose in plumes around him as the wind picked up, blowing cold air over the hot water.  
"I'm not going to let you drown," Poe said, placing a hand on Rey's knee. The damp silk bubbled up around his hand like Rey was wearing a delicate kind of armor.  
"I don't think that what you will and will not let happen is the challenge here," Rey replied with a half smile. She scrunched up her face and peered out into the steam at the nearly invisible Finn who was still staying in the middle of the water with his tiny corrections and twitches. "How is he doing that?"  
"Doing what, floating?" Poe asked watching her watching Finn. His hand left her knee and Rey made a small note in some back alley of her brain that Poe had warm hands that made the warm air feel cold when they weren't on her. "Wait here, I just got a brilliant idea." He sprang upright in a controlled motion and headed around a large stony outcrop that hid the hot spring from most of the winds that happened on the green and grey island and offered shelter to the handful of trees that were sturdy enough to grow into tree adulthood. 

They had left their clothes on the other side of the big grey rocks where the sun was shining and would keep them warm. Poe returned shortly with the white vest that was nearly always attached to his flight suit because it was too much effort to unclip it (it was too much effort to wear anything else, really, since the flight suit was wind proof and, as good as his hair looked when it was blowing in the wind, Poe was not all that fond of wind).   
"Up," he ordered Rey. She stayed firmly planted on the edge of the pool. "Up, please?" Poe tried again. This time Rey actually moved, but not very far.  
"What are you planning to do with that?" She asked, eyeing the white vest and the various buckles and trappings that dangled from it.  
"We wear these with flight suits," Poe began, "so that if we crash in the water we can float even if we're exhausted or injured or mostly dead because we just crashed."   
"It makes you float?" Rey asked, standing up.  
"It will keep you from drowning unless you do something very stupid."  
"How do I put it on?" Rey reached out and brushed her fingers hesitantly across the fabric of the vest. Poe unclipped it and it popped open.   
"Arms out." He draped the vest over Rey's outstretched arms and pushed it up just enough that it was over her elbows. He didn't cross any boundaries that they hadn't had a chance to establish just yet. "Put it up against your chest and I'll clip it for you." Rey pushed it the rest of the way and held it while Poe circled behind her and looped straps through clasps and got the vest to sit more or less snugly against Rey's petite frame. "Done."

Rey was about to ask why it wasn't a more complicated process to get the vest on and if it really was going to keep her from drowning in the hot spring pool that was deep enough to drown in, if she really put her mind to it, when a commotion of splashing and half swallowed shouts came from the center of the spring where Finn had been floating contentedly. Poe blurred as he darted past her and dove into the water, arms pulling him towards the center of the pool, legs kicking in a steady beat pushing him towards Finn, who was still sputtering. The mist kicked up into a fog and Rey lost sight of Poe's form as it plowed through the water to Finn. The splashing grew faint and soon enough the only thing Rey could hear was the lapping of water on stone shore. She took a shaky step into the water which swallowed her ankles. Four more steps and she was knee deep.

"POE? FINN!" She expected something to come back to her, even if it was her own voice echoed off the looming grey rocks. She shouted their names again, took two more steps, and the water was lapping at her hips. "PLEASE ANSWER ME!" She pushed further into the depths of the pool. Her ribs were now submerged and the vest was lifting away from her in the slight way floaty things did when they were in water. The other side of the steam cloud was silent for an immeasurable number of Rey's heartbeats. Then she heard the sound of someone moving in the water.

"Poe? Poe, oh, thank the stars," Rey whispered in a breath she didn't know she had been holding. She moved forward, her feet stumbling over the algae covered bottom of the pool until she couldn't reach it with even her big toe. Rey gave the tiniest of cries when she kicked out and felt nothing beneath her feet. She grabbed at the straps on the vest and gave an unnecessarily mighty kick with her grounded foot as she tried to lunge forward to reach stone again. She felt a burn of pain on the bottom of her foot as her face dipped into the warm waters of the spring and her backside floated up. Her mind reeled. Her legs kicked in frantic circles and her arms seemed to be glued in place. She willed herself to move, to right herself, to do anything but panic as the mineral rich water made her eyes sting and her lungs began weakly complaining at her that they would very much like air soon. Her foot throbbed.

The blue world around her darkened and all at once she was lifted into the light, baptized by the grey steam that was thick over the water. She sputtered and her hands released the death grip they had had on the vest and she wiped at her eyes, the water streaming off her face blurring her vision. A hand wiped her cheek dry. A split second later, she realized it was a gloved hand. A less than split second later, Rey realized that the body she was clinging to, numb with the passing euphoria that comes after a panic, was clothed. She shoved against the chest of her rescuer uselessly. One hand was firmly tangled in the straps of the vest that crossed on her back, the other was awkwardly reaching for her as she thrashed.  
"LET GO OF ME!" Rey squawked. A metallic laugh came from the head of the figure that was still hidden in the steam.

"After all the trouble I went through to find you?" Rey froze. She was intimately familiar with the voice coming through the helmet that was covered in condensation. Black robes floated like ominous clouds in the water, pillowing with air or bubbling as they silently drowned, sinking into the water. "I'm very forgiving, you'll find." Kylo Ren told her as he turned to go the edge of the pool he had come in from. His grip tightened on the straps he was dragging his prize by. He strode through the water, sure of his steps. "I could have let you drown."

Rey's survival instincts kicked into high gear at long last, and she moved like lightning. She reached between her legs and undid one of the clips, squirmed her arm through one of the holes in the vest and popped free with a surprised little gasp. She sunk beneath the water briefly before bobbing back up. She took a deep breath and fumbled in any direction that would take her away from the Sith who was holding her vest with a bewildered expression. Or at least she hoped it was a bewildered expression, as she glanced back at him to make sure he wasn't pursuing her. Her heart flopped and she swallowed a mouthful of water as she saw him striding after her, the water up to his shoulders in an instant. Rey thought that drowning wasn't so horrible a way to die after all.

She kept kicking her legs and flapping her arms, in a poor imitation of what she had watched Poe doing minutes ago. It did the trick, except that for every manic kick forward, Kylo Ren closed the gap with a single stride. Rey's head dipped below the water and she tumbled and suddenly didn't know if up was the way it had been before. Hands closed around her and dragged her to the surface. An arm wrapped around her torso and the same gloved hand wiped hair back from her forehead.   
"Stop struggling," There was a hint of a laugh in the metallic voice that hissed out of the helmet.  
"If I do then you'll kill me!" Rey protested, rather sensibly.  
"I could let go and you'll kill yourself just fine, if that's what you'd prefer." Rey could hear his smirk.

"Do it then-" and Rey was back under water gulping in a lungful before she had time to think about what she had just told Kylo Ren to do. Her lungs and throat burned as they fought to expel the water she had just inhaled. She was brought back to the surface by her captor and coughed until she was retching. Water flowed out of her mouth and she felt all at once incredibly weak and impossibly tired.  
"Was it as fun as you had hoped, girl?" He sneered.

Rey spit at him and he let go of her again. She had managed to take a breath before hitting the water, but this time she was being held down by an invisible hand. She was just under the surface, looking up into the masked face above her. Her mind raced with ghosts of advice, breathe, don't breathe, use the Force, play dead. She glared angrily up at the mask as she opened her mouth and let the water fill it.   
Rey's vision was blurring when Ren pulled her from the water and helpfully slapped her on the back until she had retched up more than just water. The exhaustion she felt was infuriating, but at the same time she was elated to be alive (and if she ever took a bath again it would be all too soon). She closed her eyes and felt herself being carried through the water, slowly slipping out of consciousness

Kylo was silent as he made his way to the shore. He thought that maybe he should feel guilty for holding the girl under water. He stepped out onto a pebbled shore on the very far opposite bank from where Rey had been enjoying her day before. Poe and Finn were unconscious on the shore, their heads out of the water, a trickle of blood escaping from the pilot's nose. He stalked past them without a second thought.  
Now that he was out of the water his robes weighed an extra stone. They dragged on the ground and snagged on the wind beaten scrubs, catching and pulling, until, in frustration, he abandoned the impressive outer layer and continued onwards to his shuttle, which was tucked carefully in a cave he had nearly crashed into during his landing. He adjusted his hold on his captive. Up until now it had been easiest to carry her in both arms, but the descent to the ship was tricky and he needed a hand free to steady himself against the steep cliff face that had a hidden path that led up from the sea cave. He removed his belt, tied it around her arms and threw her over his shoulder. Her hips dug into his shoulder and wet silk clung to his mask as he carefully picked his path down. Two Storm troopers were waiting with the command shuttle, one stood by the base, guarding the ramp that led inside. The other was waiting at the base of the cliff, watching the top of the cliff in case a pursuer appeared above his commander.  
On board at long last, Kylo ordered take-off and took his captive to the hold. He dropped her unceremoniously onto a thin green cot and closed the door to the hold with the flick of the wrist. His helmet came off with a hiss and black curls tumbled out. Dark brown eyes took in the sight of his prize. She was nothing like he remembered. Her hair was a tangle of wet brown curls that plastered to her skin wherever they made contact. She was small and pure and far from intimidating. The only thing telling him that it was the girl from Star Killer base, from Jakku, was the throbbing in his chest that occasionally lurched him forward towards her. He raised a hand absentmindedly to the scar on his face, wondering if she would recognize him; recognize what she had done to him. 

She coughed, a deep racking cough, that heaved her whole chest off the cot. More water came out of her mouth and she rolled to her hands and knees and sputtered out what she could. She gasped for air and looked around her at the grey inside of the ship. Her skin prickled and she turned to the other person in the room and she recoiled. Kylo Ren had been hauntingly beautiful before, his features an oddly perfect mixture of General Organa and Han Solo. Now a gaunt face stared back at her, pale and cleaved down one cheek with a horrendous red scar. They sat in silence, neither one possessing the energy to start trouble.  
Finally Kylo Ren shifted in his seat. "Cold?"  
"What?" Rey responded without thinking.  
"Are you cold?" You're wet and not wearing anything substantial." He said very matter of fact.  
Rey curled her arms around herself and brought her knees to her chest with a defiant look. "Why do you care?"  
"Because I've combed through half the galaxy to find you again and it does me no good to have you freeze to death."  
"YOU TRIED TO DROWN ME!" Rey shouted at him.  
"I wasn't going to drown-"  
"YOU HELD ME UNDERWATER WITH THE FORCE."  
"You needed to be taught a lesson" Kylo Ren's voice rose.  
"Oh, and what lesson is that? Hmm? Be grateful to the murdering slime for not being in a particularly murdery mood?"  
"I AM NOT A MURDERER" He bellowed.   
"TELL THAT TO HAN, OH WAIT YOU CAN'T." Rey slapped her hands to the edge of the cot and pushed herself forward so she was nose to nose with her captor.  
"Do not threaten me." His voice was shaking.  
Rey leaned back slightly, her eyes narrowed, never leaving Ren's face. "Don't tell lies."

Kylo Ren stood up and moved to toss his cloak behind him, forgetting it was no longer there. He grabbed his helmet and slammed it down over his head then stormed out of the hold. The doors whirred shut behind him, non-threateningly.


End file.
